The Wonder-Working Magician, Pedro Calderón de la Barca [finding audrey .TXT] 📗

But our master yonder, see, How absorbed he seems.

CLARIN. More near, If he speaks I'd like to hear.

MOSCON. And I, too, would like.

CYPRIAN. Ah me! [As MOSCON and CLARIN approach CYPRIAN from opposite sides, he gesticulates with his arms, and accidentally strikes both. Love, how great thy agonies!-

CLARIN. Ah! ah, me!

MOSCON. Ah, me! I bawl.

CLARIN. Well, I think that we may call This the land of the 'sigh-ah-mes'!

CYPRIAN. What! and have you both been here?

CLARIN. I, at least, was here, I'll swear.

MOSCON. And I, also.

CYPRIAN. O, despair End at once my sad career! Ah, what human heart to woe Like to mine has given a home?


* * * * *


SCENE V.

THE COUNTRY.

CYPRIAN, CLARIN, and MOSCON.

CLARIN. Whither Moscon, do we roam?

MOSCON. When we've reached the end, we'll know. Leagues behind us lies the town, Still we go.

CLARIN. A strange proceeding!- Little time have we for reading, Idly pacing up and down.

CYPRIAN. Clarin, get thee home.

MOSCON. And I?

CLARIN. Sly-boots, would you rather stay?

CYPRIAN. Go: here leave me both; away!

CLARIN. Mind, he tells us both to fly.

[Exeunt CLARIN and MOSCON.


* * * * *


SCENE VI.

CYPRIAN. Memory of a maddened brain, Do not with such strong control Make me think another soul Is what in my heart doth reign. Blind idolator I have been - Lost in love's ambitious flight, Since such beauty met my sight, Since a goddess I have seen. Yet in such a maze of woe Rigorous fate doth make me move, That I know but whom I love, And of whom I am jealous - no. Yet this passion is so strong - Ah, so sweet this fascination, Driving my imagination With resistless force along - That I would (I know too well How this madness doth degrade me) To some devilish power to aid me, Were it even to rise from hell, Where some mightier power hath kept it,- Sharing all its pains in common,- I would, to possess this woman, Give my soul.


* * * * *


SCENE VII.

The Demon and CYPRIAN.

Demon [within]. And I accept it.

[A great tempest is heard, with thunder and lightning.

CYPRIAN. What's this, ye heavens so pure? Clear but a moment hence and now obscure, Ye fright the gentle day! The thunder-balls, the lightning's forked ray, Leap from its riven breast - Terrific shapes it cannot keep at rest; All the whole heaven a crown of clouds doth wear, And with the curling mist, like streaming hair, This mountain's brow is bound. Outspread below, the whole horizon round Is one volcanic pyre. The sun is dead, the air is smoke, heaven fire. Philosophy, how far from thee I stray, When I cannot explain the marvels of this day! And now the sea, upborne on clouds the while, Seems like some ruined pile, That crumbling down the wind as 'twere a wall, In dust not foam doth fall. And struggling through the gloom, Facing the storm, a mighty ship seeks room On the open sea, whose rage it seems to court, Flying the dangerous pity of the port. The noise, the terror, and that fearful cry, Give fatal augury Of the impending stroke. Death hesitates, For each already dies who death awaits. With portents the whole atmosphere is rife, Nor is it all the effect of elemental strife. The ship is rigged with tempest as it flies.* It rushes on the lee, The war is now no longer of the sea; Upon a hidden rock It strikes: it breaks as with a thunder shock. Blood flakes the foam where helpless it is tost.


[footnote] *Hartzenbusch remarks that there is no corresponding rhyme for this line in the original, and that both the sense and the versification are defective. -'Comedias de Calderon', t. 2, p. 178.


[The sound of the tempest increases, and voices are heard within.

VOICES WITHIN. We sink! we sink! we're lost!

DEMON [within]. For what I have in hand, I'll trust this plank to bear me to the land.

CYPRIAN. As scorning the wild wave One man alone his life attempts to save. While lurching over, mid the billows' swell, The great ship sinks to where the Tritons dwell; There, with its mighty ribs asunder rent, It lies a corse of the sea, its grave and monument.

[Enter The Demon, dripping with wet, as if escaped from the sea.

DEMON [aside]. For the end I wish to gain It was of necessity That upon this sapphire sea I this fearful storm should feign, And in form unlike that one Which in this wild wood I wore, When I found my deepest lore By his keener wit outdone, Come again to assail him here, Trusting better now to prove Both his intellect and his love.- [Aloud. Earth, loved earth, O mother dear, From this monster, this wild sea, Give me shelter in thy arms.

CYPRIAN. Lose, my friend, the dread alarms, And the cruel memory Of thy peril happily past; Since we learn or late or soon, That beneath the inconstant moon Human bliss doth never last.

DEMON. Who are thou, at whose kind feet Has my fortune cast me here?

CYPRIAN. One who with a pitying tear, For a ruin so complete, Would alleviate your woe.

DEMON. Ah, impossible!- for me Never, never, can there be Any solace.

CYPRIAN. How, why so?

DEMON. All my priceless wealth I've lost . . . But I'm wrong to thus complain, I'll forget, nay, think it gain, Since my life it hath not cost.

CYPRIAN. Now that the wild whirl malign Of this earthquake storm doth cease, And the sky returns to peace, Quiet, calm, and crystalline, And the bright succeeds the dark With such strange rapidity, That the storm would seem to be Only raised to sink thy bark, Tell me who thou art, repay Thus a sympathy so sincere.

DEMON. It has cost me to come here More than you have seen to-day, More than I can well express; Of the miseries I recall This ship's loss is least of all. Would you see that clearly?

CYPRIAN. Yes.

DEMON. I am since you wish to know it, An epitome, a wonder* Of all happiness and misfortune, One I have lost, I weep the other. By my gifts was I so glorious, So conspicuous in my order, Of a lineage so illustrious, With a mind so well informed, That my rare endowments feeling, A great king (in truth the noblest King of Kings, for all would tremble If he looked in anger on them,) In his palace roofed with diamonds And with gems as bright as morning, (If I called them stars, 'tis certain The comparison were too modest,) His especial favourite called me. Which high epithet of honour So enflamed my pride, as rival For his royal seat I plotted, Hoping soon my victor footsteps Would his golden thrones have trodden. It was an unheard-of daring, THAT, chastized I must acknowledge, I was mad; but then repentance Were a still insaner folly. Obstinate in my resistance, With my spirit yet unconquered, I preferred to fall with courage Than surrender with dishonour. If the attempt was rash, the rashness Was not solely my misfortune, For among his numerous vassals Not a few my standard followed. From his court, in fine, thus vanquished, Though part victor in the contest, I went forth, my eyes outflashing Flames of anger and abhorrence, And my lips proclaiming vengeance For the public insult offered To my pride, among his people Scattering murder, rapine, horror. Then a bloody pirate, I The wide plains of the sea ran over, Argus of its dangerous shallows, Lynx-eyed where the reefs lay covered; In that vessel which the wind Bit by bit so soon demolished, In that vessel which the sea As a dustless ruin swallowed, I to-day these fields of crystal Eagerly ran o'er, my object Being stone by stone to examine, Tree by tree to search this forest:- For a man in it is living, Whom it is of great importance I should see, this day expecting The fulfilment of a promise Which he gave and I accepted. This infuriate tempest stopped me. And although my powerful genius Could chain up east, south, and north wind, I cared not, as if despairing Of success, with other objects, Other aims in view, to turn them To the west wind's summer softness.- [Aside. (I have said I could, but did not, For I note the dangerous workings Of his mind, and thus to magic Bind him by these hints the stronger.) Let not my wild fury fright thee, Nor be at my power astonished, For I could my own death give me, If I were by rage so prompted, And so great that power, the sunlight, By my science could be blotted. I, in magic am so mighty, That I can describe the orbits Of the stars, for I have travelled Through the farthest and beyond them. And in order that this boasting May not seem to you mere bombast, Look, if at this very instant You desire it, this untrodden Nimrod of rude rocks more savage Than of Babylon is recorded, Shall without a leaf being shaken, Show the most horrific portents. I am, then, the orphan guest here Of these ash-trees, of these poplars, And though what I am, assistance At thy feet here I ask from thee: And I wish the good I purchase To repay thee with the product Of unnumbered years of study, Though it now slight effort costs me, Giving to your wildest wishes [Aside. (Here I touch his love,) the fondest Longings of your heart, whatever Passion can desire or covet. If through courtesy or caution You should not accept my offer, Let my good intentions pay you, If from greater acts you stop me. For the pity that you show me, Which I thankfully acknowledge, I will be a friend so faithful, That henceforth the changeful monster Of events and acts, called Fortune, Which 'twixt flattering words and scornful, Generous now, and now a miser, Shows a friendly face or hostile, Neither it nor that laborious Ever flying, running worker, Time, the loadstone of the ages, Nor even heaven itself, heaven proper, To whose stars the dark world oweth All its most divine adornment, Will have power to separate me From your side a single moment, Since you here have given me welcome. And even this is almost nothing When compared with what my wishes Hope hereafter to accomplish.


[footnote] *Asonante in 1-3, to the end of the speech.


CYPRIAN. Well to the sea, my thanks are due, that bore You struggling to the shore, And led you to